Ryan Knudson

After that stint in Vegas, Rubin went to Harvard Business School, then moved to New York to start a career as a financial trader in the 1980s.

But he never lost that gambler mentality.

At what point did he start appearing in the Wall Street Journal?

It wasn't long, however, before stories in the Wall Street Journal about Rubin's success turned into stories about his failure.

Hedge it, meaning that if he's wrong, there's no safety net that they're building underneath him.

It was such a big deal that Merrill Lynch had to publicly announce the loss to investors and that Howard Rubin was responsible.

Over time, Rubin's trading exploits faded from the pages of the Wall Street Journal.

But now, Ruben is back in the news, but under very different circumstances.

Details about Ruben's alleged abuse first started to emerge in 2017, when a group of women sued him.

Another lawsuit followed a year later, and eventually, a criminal prosecution.

Through court records, Eric was able to put together a picture of what allegedly happened,

Before we go on, I should say that we're going to describe allegations of sexual assault and abuse, which for some listeners might be difficult to hear.

What do we know about when the alleged sex abuse started?

The women who formed the civil suits included freelance models and cocktail waitresses.

Prosecutors say that many of them were caring for younger siblings or kids of their own, and that Rubin exploited that economic disparity.

According to court documents, in a 2014 text message, Rubin wrote that one woman was, quote, broke and says she'll do anything.

Typically, Rubin didn't make first contact with these women.

One person who allegedly did that for him was named Jennifer Powers.

Those allegations sound sort of like the relationship between Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.

Powers has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking and transporting women over state lines for sex.